FOUR SEASONS ORLANDO

FOUR SEASONS

at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

                                                                                

                  I  recently visited the new Four Seasons Orlando at Disney World. The resort only opened a few weeks ago. This new addition to the Four Seasons family is located inside Disney's Golden Oak, a private community with multi-million dollar homes. The hotel has a beautiful lobby featuring a grand fireworks chandelier (as seen above.)  The rooms were spacious and the bathrooms was cool because it featured a cool tv inside the mirror.  My room gave views of all four Disney Parks and it was so much fun watching the fireworks from Magic Kingdom and Illuminations from Epcot. The staff at the hotel was very kind as they catered to all of my family's needs. The best part of the hotel was the pool area. It featured a Four Seasons kids club, two infinity pools (one for adults), ping pong, three pool tables, and other games. My favorite parts were the Splash Zone and the lazy river. The Splash Zone had two really cool water slides, and a small pool that had water shooting out of it and mist sprayers. The lazy river had waterfalls, water guns, bubbly sections, and areas where the currents varied. The only downside to the resort was that other than the pool, there was not a lot of other activities for teens and tweens (though the the resort was not completely finished so there may be more in the future.) Being a little bit bored, my mom and I decided that we wanted to walk on the paths around the resort that are apparently only for Golden Oak residents which we found out from a security guard. Whoops! Since it is located on Disney property, the resort also has shuttle transportation to the parks. For young visitors or the young at heart, the hotel has Disney character breakfasts on certain mornings. Overall my trip there was pretty fun. I would rate it 4 out of 5. I would love to go back.

The National Zoo

                                                           The National Zoo

On my recent trip to Washington D.C., I was ecstatic to see the famed pandas at the National Zoo. It was a bit a of let down. The zoo, a popular tourist destination attracting a ton of visitors each year, was of course on the top of my list for things to do. I was greeted at the zoo by a light display showcasing their famous animals, like the pandas. While walking around the zoo, I noticed it was a little boring and just overall old. The exhibits are in need of a renovation and were bland, but some exhibits did have fun interactive activities like in the Elephant House and the Think Tank. The Panda Exhibit did prove to be very cool though. The outdoor part was large enough for the animals to wander around and relax. Since I was there early in the morning, about 8 a.m., I was lucky to see one of the pandas being quite active.  My favorite exhibit was the Amazon House, a gem in my eyes. It has a variety of animals including an arapaima. The house also included a jungle-like area, a research library, and of course a ton of other animals ranging in all shapes and sizes. Like most of the zoo, the food was only so-so. It should come as no surprise, too, that the food was overpriced. I would only rank this 3 out of 5 stars. The only things that saved this from being lower were the pandas and the Amazon House.